If you haven’t heard the news, Facebook is making some updates that are going to change the scope of the Organic Reach of pages. And this change is going to affect everyone–whether your page simply shares memes, acts as your landing page or works to connect a certain community. In this article’s we’ll discuss the details of these changes as well as offer a few tips to help you get ahead. But first, what is Organic Reach?

What is Organic Reach?

Put simply, Organic Reach is the measure of how many of your audience is able to find your Facebook page for free. It’s very similar to organic rankings in the search engine. The difference is, organic Facebook reach is based on post frequency, popularity, and other factors.

When we think about Facebook’s current state, it’s easy to see what they would make this change. More and more content is being generated with each passing day and it can have a big impact on the News Feed. So it’s necessary to do a little fine-tuning every now and then. Primarily, this social media giant wants their Organic Reach to look and feel more similar to paid reach measurements.

What’s Changing?

Once upon a time, Facebook counted Organic Reach as whenever your unpaid post happened to appear in someone’s feed. Now, it considers Organic Reach to be whenever your unpaid post enters someone’s screen. So people may still see your post in their News Feed, however, it won’t count in the tallying.

This means that a lot of businesses will see a decrease in their Organic Search traffic, but the good news is, the metric will be more accurate. The key to getting the most out of this change is to focus on the quality of your content. The higher the quality is, the more of an edge you will get on your competition.

1. Quality, not quantity

As mentioned above, Facebook is now more interested in quality over the quantity. This means that if your ultimate goal was to post as often as possible, you may need to tweak your strategy a bit. You need to aim for a moderate amount of posting–not too much and not too little. This gives you the ability to focus on creating valuable content. And the best part about posting moderately is that your best posts will never get lost in a see of your content.

2. Know what they’re looking for

No matter what industry you’re apart of, you should always make it your goal to investigate what your audience is searching for. Shareable content doesn’t just appear out of nowhere, you have to research topics that are meaningful to them. And the more targeted it is, the better.

A great place to start is with a video. It will help to improve your Organic Reach and boost your level of engagement. Find out what your audience is consuming. Make your videos a mixture of educational and entertaining.

3. Think about the timing

Sure, you may have created a post that people will love, but if you don’t put it out it out at the optimal time then it won’t get the type of reach it deserves. Very few people will actually see it. So you need to know when Facebook is most active. In general, the best days to share are Sunday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. The times are around 9 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm.

However, it’s a good idea to take your industry into consideration when searching for the perfect days and time to post. When is the audience in your niche the most active? When is there a Reach dip? Once you find this information, test them and determine if they are accurate by paying attention to your own Facebook Insights. Research suggests that it’s best to feed the algorithm one post at a time so that it doesn’t have to choose between your content.

4. Curate

Many Singapore business owners would rather shut down their websites before they actually post content from another business. They assume that this will send their audience running into the arms of their competitors and hurt their brand. In actuality, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Sharing content from others can actually help.

There are several benefits to curating content on your Facebook Page. It’s easy on your budget, it helps you present content that is engaging, it appeals to a variety of people, you can post more consistently, and you can fill in the knowledge gaps. All you have to do is find valuable, relevant content from other top sources around the web and then share it with your audience. You should also add hashtags.

5. Don’t sell

If you’re simply using Facebook as a means to get traffic to your website, then you’re making a big mistake. You see, Google isn’t the only search engine that is evaluating user intent, Facebook is as well. They filter out posts that come across as too salesy. Not only that, but the users do too. So it’s important that you understand where Facebook and other social media platforms like it fit into your sales funnel.

This platform should be positioned at the top of your funnel. And the elements at the top of your funnel are more oriented toward relationships. The hard sells usually don’t work in this case, engagement does.

The best results will come with your being more active. Reply to comment. Get involved in discussions. Realise that people love being heard and acknowledged. Make sales later. You can also boost your most popular posts.

6. Consider alternatives

While many Singapore business owners are aware of groups, not many take advantage of them. They see them as more risky than anything. However, creating your own Facebook group can be a huge tool in light of the recent changes.

This is because consumers will need to opt into it. This means they’re notifications and you will be able to engage with them on a deeper level. Building a community takes time, but it’s worth it.

Takeaway

If you assumed that Facebook’s organic reach was dead, then you were misguided. There are still plenty of opportunities to reach your audience without spending your entire ad budget. But that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy. The change means that you’re going to have to alter your social media marketing strategy.

You need to focus more on the quality of your content instead of the frequency of your posts. You need to study your audience to understand what they’re looking for. Be aware of the optimal times to post. Don’t be afraid to curate the content of others. Also, you should start your own group–not to sell, but to engage.

Author Bio

Tom Koh is widely recognised as a leading SEO consultant in Asia who has worked to transform the online visibility of the leading organisations such as SingTel, Capitaland, Maybank, P&G, WWF, etc. Recently he was instrumental in consulting for a New York-based US$30B fund in an US$4Bn acquisition. Tom is a Computational Science graduate of the National University of Singapore. In his free time he performs pro-bono community work and traveling. Google+